Internet Explorer
May 30, 2009
I’m still putting finishing touches on the site. Today I worked on XHTML validation and Internet Explorer compatibility. The first one was easy, but trying to get Internet Explorer (mainly version 6) to be happy…ugh.
For those of you who don’t know, Microsoft Internet Explorer is the ONLY major browser that doesn’t adhere to today’s web standards. It currently has the most market share, but it’s the most behind. And because it’s the most popular browser as of right now, web developers have to work their butts off hacking and tweaking our code so that it works with IE.
Well-known pie chart illustrating the grief IE brings to web designers
Microsoft has done a horrible job of keeping their browser up to date. A lot of developers and companies now use the term “modern browsers” in conversation when they want to exclude Internet Explorer from the group. It’s the only browser that currently isn’t ready for HTML 5, which means that a lot of new web applications like Google Wave won’t run on it. It baffles me, with Internet Explorer being as retarded (literally) as it is, why the steaming pile of crap still has more than fifty percent of the market share.
If you’re still using Internet Explorer, please, please, please switch to a better browser like Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome. By using a modern browser, you’ll be helping to lessen the influence that Microsoft’s failing browser has on the web. You’ll also be able to take advantage of modern web techonogies and see websites that way that the web designers intended. There’s more, too: Firefox and Chrome are much more secure than Internet Explorer is; you won’t be as susceptible to viruses and other forms of malware. There’s really no reason not to switch and a multitude of good reasons to switch. Don’t just do it for us web developers; do it for yourself.
(I think I’m going to make one of these just for the fun of it:)
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